The Tortilla Press: Collingswood's 'little dynamo'

We always hear about the shiny, new food companies. The Spot is a series about the Philadelphia area's more established establishments and the people behind them.

Collingswood is now almost wall-to-wall restaurants, a United Nations of dining along Haddon Avenue. Back in 2002, not so much, aside from Villa Barone.

Longtime caterers Mark Smith and Lydia Cipriani, looking for a restaurant space, were told that the town was pushing to add dining and retail.

They bought the former Collingswood Family Restaurant and in July 2002 opened The Tortilla Press, a Mexican-influenced BYOB.

Ten years later, it expanded next door. In late 2008, the couple opened Tortilla Press Cantina in Pennsauken Township.

Q: Your background was not in Mexican cuisine. How did The Tortilla Press come into play?

A: When I told the bank that we were thinking about doing an American bistro, they said, 'You know. I don't think we're interested in financing that.' I said, 'Well, my other concept was to do kind of a Mexican-influenced concept.' They said, 'Well, can we see the plans for that?' I said, 'Sure.' I gave them what I had been thinking about and they said, 'You know what? We really like this, and we think it would be a great addition to the town.' " And we ended up getting our financing.

Q: Did you have any formal training in Mexican food?

A: Wherever I worked in the country, I always found the Mexican restaurants, and I always worked really well with my Latino cooks and sous chefs, so it was kind of hands-on. Going to the local restaurants in the areas where I was, or doing family meal with the cooks and the other chefs. Then after we opened I went down to Oaxaca with the [Culinary Institute of America] and Rick Bayless for a week and did a really nice week-long stint with him, which was completely enlightening. We're not authentic-authentic. I take a lot of my culinary training and have tweaked a lot of dishes to make them more gringo-friendly. The things that we do that are authentic are on point. Usually people that come in are pleasantly surprised that everybody can find something that they're comfortable with.

Q: You've seen Collingswood grow from essentially two restaurants to at least two dozen. What's it like?

A: Up until two years ago, I probably would have said the competition was really spectacular. I think it has brought a lot of people into town, and there are people that just come to Collingswood for dinner, or lunch, or brunch, and they probably don't come for anything else. I think that we've reached seat saturation — not just with Collingswood, but with all the expansion of the restaurants in the region. This is a great town. I mean, the farmer's market every Saturday morning from the first Saturday in May till the Saturday before Thanksgiving is great because I've developed all these relationships with these farmers. In the beginning they might have five bunches of cilantro on the table and they might have bought some tomatillos that they were growing for their staff to just see if they would sell. I've got one guy right now who's planting peppers. He brings me cases of cilantro. Springdale Farms in Cherry Hill, when we do our grilled sweet corn, we just use theirs. Their tomatoes are spectacular for my pico de gallo. It's nice because it's more than business now; it's like they're my friends.

Q: How would you do here if you could get a liquor license [Collingswood is dry, though BYOB is permitted]?

A: I'd be on a boat on the Bahamas right now. I'm serious. Not that I've ever considered this — there's apartments above both sides. We would chop off the top half of this one and make it a patio bar overlooking Haddon Avenue. Plus that would be either bar overflow or a part room. Our cantina location, I see the difference in the P&L on a BYO versus a liquor license establishment.

Q: How did things go with the cantina?

A: We sank everything, I mean everything we had, into it. Opened to great crowds. You know the bridge where Pinsetter Bar & Bowl is? The guy that was selling it didn't tell me they were redoing that bridge, [and] they shut the bridge down. Not only did they shut the bridge down but they put the barriers up at Haddonfield Road with big 'road closed' signs. … Then gas went to $4, the bank was like. "We're cool. We're going to cover you." Then the financial crisis hit and we had to walk into the bank and say, "We're going to close up." We closed with no intention of reopening. [Collingswood] kept us, basically, afloat after we worked with the banks and stuff. The bridge was only supposed to be closed for 10 months, and didn't reopen until the spring of 2010. A few months after that ... I still haven't figured out if I'm a genius or crazy. Our landlord, we just called him and said, "Hey, ... " I mean, we cobbled together just a few thousand dollars and said, 'Any interest in us trying again?' He said, 'Yeah, go for it.' He didn't charge us like 13 or 14 months' back rent.

Q: How is business now?

A: You know, if you were to ask me last year I would have said tenuous. Let's say the beginning to middle of last year I would have said it's still very tenuous. At that point when I was doing my table touches and stuff, people would be like, 'Yeah, you know, we thought you were closed.' It took so long to turn that around. … . We finally built it to a consistent-enough level that now we're at least consistently as busy as we are here. Which is huge because this place is a little dynamo for being a 86-seat BYO.

Tortilla Press, 703 Haddon Ave.

Tortilla Press Cantina, 7716 Maple Ave., Merchantville (best town to use for GPS, though it's in Pennsauken Township)